Era of mp3 is over, say its creators

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute For Integrated Circuits has terminated its licensing programme for "certain mp3-related patents" after two decades.

A German research centre that helped create the mp3 has terminated its licensing programme for mp3-related patents.

The Fraunhofer Institute For Integrated Circuits's move has prompted plenty of articles declaring the mp3 "dead," though the format has long been outdated by more efficient codecs like AAC. The institute has published a statement saying it ended the programme on April 23rd. "We thank all of our licensees for their great support in making mp3 the defacto audio codec in the world, during the past two decades," they say.

The statement adds that despite the existence of "more efficient audio codecs with advanced features available" the mp3 remains "very popular among consumers." It continues: "However, most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting use modern ISO-MPEG codecs such as the AAC family or in the future MPEG-H. Those can deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to mp3."